Never Miss A Story.

Daily Edition

'300' debut not spartan: tops 4 charts

Empty

It looked like a video game and felt like a video game, so it isn't surprising that Warner Home Video would score big with the simultaneous DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of "300."

The film, which grossed $210.6 million in theaters, easily swept into the top spot on the national home video sales and rental charts during its first week in stores. On the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart for the week ending Aug. 5, the actioner outsold its closest competitor, Universal Studios' "Hot Fuzz," by more than 7-to-1. On Home Media Magazine's video rental chart, "300" took the top spot with estimated rental earnings of $11.9 million, compared with $6.4 million for the second-ranked "Hot Fuzz."

This is not to downplay the first-week showing of "Hot Fuzz." The comedy grossed just $23.6 million in theaters but after seven days had already earned more than 25% of that in rental stores alone. On the sales front, "Hot Fuzz" debuted at No. 2, with first-week sales pegged by studio sources at more than 1 million units — well above what one would expect for a title of this boxoffice.

20th Century Fox's "Pathfinder," an actioner that made a little more than $10 million in theaters, debuted at No. 3 on First Alert and at No. 6 on the rental chart, with $4.5 million in rental revenue.

On the high-definition disc charts, "300" was the top seller on the Blu-ray Disc and the HD DVD charts. The Blu-ray Disc version outsold the HD DVD edition by a margin of nearly 2-to-1.